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A Russian tennis player has been thrown out of a tennis tournament in the US because he questioned the impartiality of the umpire, given that both she and his opponent were black.

Daniil Medvedev, 20, was immediately disqualified from the Savannah Challenger - a competition that forms part of the ATP World Tour - on Thursday, after he “questioned the impartiality of the umpire, based on her race.”

And at the end of the game, tournament supervisor Keith Crossland was called to the court by Ms French to discuss Medvedev’s behavior. After a lengthy discussion with Medvedev, Mr Crossland walked over to Ms French in the umpire’s chair and appeared to give his consent for the match to be handed to Young through an unsportsmanlike default against Medvedev.

Ms French announced the news to the crowd, who had no idea what was going on.

Hewitt appeared to complain that the line judge was giving special treatment to Blake, as both men were black.

“I’ve only been foot-faulted up one end. Look at him, look at him, look at him, mate,’’ said Hewitt. “Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is. Get him off the court. Look at what he’s done.”

Hewitt has always insisted that his call for the linesman to be moved had nothing to do with the colour of his skin. The linesman was changed and Hewitt was cleared by an International Tennis Federation investigation, which found there was no evidence to bring charges against the player for making a racial comment.